Page:Aids to the Pronunciation of Irish - Christian Brothers.djvu/41



29. The consonant ( and ) is the only one. If, when air is being driven from the lungs over the relaxed vocal chords, the latter are suddenly drawn into position for vibration, the sudden transition from a silent to a voiced current of air gives the sound of. Similarly, if the vocal chords are vibrating and we suddenly relax them, we send off the voiced portion of the breath with a jerk, and thus get the sound of after a vowel.

(a) It is quite easy to sound an h on to a vowel—e.g., “ate,” “hate”; “is,” “his”; “at,” “hat,” &c; but in English we never sound an h off a vowel, although the h is written—e.g., “Oh,” “Ah” These words simply get the sounds of the two vowels “o” and “a.” In Irish we must pronounce an off a vowel—e.g., ; and also between vowels—e.g.,. No difficulty will be experienced with the sound of between vowels, if the student thinks of such names as “Sheehy,” “Tuohy,” “Fahy,” &c. In English, h does not occur between vowels except in borrowed words—e.g., “tomahawk.”

(b) The sound of is a most important one in Irish on account of the influence it exerts over the other consonants, and also over slender glides. This point is treated in § 136.

30. We have already pointed out in explaining the formation of the liquids (§ 22) the indistinct vowel